


At the Bottom of Night

by The_Exile



Category: Chrono Trigger
Genre: Doom, F/M, Ghosts, Jealousy, Paranoia, Spoilers, ending 2 goes wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 22:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7287955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The mission took priority. After all, the whole planet was at stake. They could look for their companion afterwards. The order of events shouldn't affect too much. Besides, they would have all the time in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the Bottom of Night

The one time Marle asked her, Lucca said it was bad to try and go back down your own personal timeline. In a best case scenario it was likely to cause you to forget what you knew and have to go through the whole process again, maybe get things even more wrong next time. That was assuming you didn't completely mess up and accidentally meet yourself and cause some hideous paradox. Besides, it'd take more effort and you'd probably make yourself worse by having to witness the same failures you were trying to avoid, over and over again.

Marle wasn't sure why Lucca was suddenly such an expert on that particular subject but she was very adamant that they never try it, ever, not even if it would save Crono. The heir to throne of Guardia was used to her best friend knowing more than her, especially when it came to technical matters, so she didn't push it. It would just mean they would have to keep trying to scale the same mountain over and over again, in a gale cold enough to bite straight through the warm weather clothes Lucca had designed for them, to deplete the fire mage's entire mental energy reserves, leaving her with only enough concentration to put one foot in front of the other and more or less tell where she was treading in the ceaseless blizzard. While they weren't in any danger of running out of time to carry out their mission, no amount of travel to the past could do anything to erase the pain, exhaustion and slowly ebbing morale that worsened every time the wind picked them up and deposited them back at the base. They had the doll things that Belthazar had left them in his legacy, along with the Chrono Trigger itself. After they had released the dolls onto the mountain and they had somehow grown into trees, it was no longer impossible to make the climb but it was still difficult. Every time the howling wind picked up, it made a noise that reminded Marle of the mournful wails of the restless dead. She didn't suppose there were many dangerous creatures left on the mountain, though. Certainly, the Lavos spawns would have died out without their mother providing them with the world's life energy, as would the mutations created by the alien's genetic tampering. Most of the possessed animals had returned to normal and there were less reports of hauntings as the flow of history calmed down, overwriting everything that shouldn't have happened as though it were a bad dream.

When she put it like that, it did sound like they were running out of time. Lucca had reassured her that the Epoch's time travel ability was still stable with no interruptions, that it would be perfectly safe to keep trying. Far be it from her to question Lucca's scientific genius but she did wonder sometimes. She had remembered seeing time gates instantaneously distorting, disappearing or being shut off before. She also knew that Lucca felt the same way about Crono as she did, was just as desperate to see him alive again, was probably just as secretly willing to ignore all common sense and do whatever it took to bring him back.

Marle prayed to the Entity that they hadn't missed their chance a long time ago.

"We should have gone after him straight away," she told Lucca for the fifth time today. Her breath was visible as she spoke, her voice turned into a sharp gasp as the chill hit her throat. She was higher up than she had realised and it was becoming a little difficult to breathe.

"And leave Lavos for afterwards? You don't think a world-destroying parasite is sort of a priority too?" replied Lucca between shivers, "You don't know him like I do. He sacrificed himself for the mission as well as to save us. That means he didn't want us running around trying to bring him back when we don't even know if it'll work, when the mission isn't done."

"It'll work," snapped Marle, suddenly feeling less cold as her anger was roused. Another reserve of energy had been opened up to her somewhere, just enough to act in an emergency, at some point, if it came down to it.

"Hey, I think we made it through the annoying bit," said Lucca, reaching out an arm in a worryingly stiff movement, "Looks like we're heading towards the clearing on the map."

Marle squinted and wiped off the ream of snow that had blown into her face. She still couldn't see much except more snow. Not only had the storm had picked up, it was starting to grow dark. 

"We need to make camp soon. Let's try and make it to the clearing," said Lucca, "Take my arm if you can't see."

Marle nodded dully and grabbed hold of the scientist's arm. She allowed herself to be led through snow that crunched under her fur-lined boots, leaving the only prints in an otherwise pristine landscape. As if nobody was here except themselves. And Crono, of course, but she wasn't sure if shadows left footprints. His form in the distance was definitely shade-like, flitting in and out of the trees with their white-covered branches, silent as an owl. She had to follow but Lucca was going in the wrong direction. Didn't she even see the man who was most important to her? Or was she doing it deliberately? Only the two of them, up where nobody would ever know what happened if either of them fell too far, and only one of them could be the first person Crono saw when she woke up in his arms...

The scientist cried out as she was roughly shoved away, something about '... trying to kill both of us?', but the howling wind drowned out her protests, especially when Marle sped up in the opposite direction until she broke into a run after the ephemeral figure that shimmered crimson in the sun's rays.

She could see him clearly now. Sitting on a branch of the enormous tree on the peak. Holding out a hand to her. Smiling as he hovered over to the cliff edge, ready to take flight...

You can't go back down your own personal timeline. It's impossible. Not ever.


End file.
